News-Letter

What makes Hopkins club soccer unique is that it plays by an extraordinarily tough schedule. The team scheduled many club teams from schools with much larger student bodies. During the regular season alone the team played against UMBC, Georgetown, Yale, Princeton, Brown and Maryland. Compiling a 4-2 record, the team was seeded 18th in its regional tournament, with the top two teams qualifying for nationals. In pool play, the Jays knocked off Drexel, Yale and #2 seed Buffalo to advance to the quarterfinals. The Jays defeated Rutgers in the quarterfinals and Northeastern in the semifinals before falling to Penn State in the finals. Yet with the top two teams securing bids at nationals the loss was inconsequential.

While getting to nationals was hard, but it seemed that raising money for the trip to Alabama was just as difficult.

"Finding funding for this trip was nearly impossible," Wink said. "I went door to door around campus with little success. I was amazed to see how little support we were able to get."

The team received a loan from Dean Boswell that the group will need to pay back before the end of the budget year, while also securing a small amount of money from Gabby Castellano and the sports council.

Once at nationals, the team would be greatly tested as the team was put into the toughest first round grouping, playing the University of Florida and then the eventual champion, University of Indiana. Hopkins jumped out to an early lead versus Florida, but the Gators club team scored in the final five minutes and the game ended in a tie. Against Indiana, the team was emotionally and physically drained from the Florida game and lost a 2-0 decision.

"Our one question going into the tournament was our lack of size and it really came back to hurt us as all three goals we conceded against Indiana and Florida were on set plays," Wink said.

The loss and the tie put Hopkins in the consolation bracket, where the Jays beat North Dakota State 2-0 and then fell to Baylor 2-1. Despite not winning the tournament, Wink was, rightfully so, very pleased with the team's performance.

"Overall, I do think we represented our University well," Wink said. "(We) definitely deserved to be there playing with the best in the country."

While the season is over for now, the team will still need to organize fundraisers in the coming months and is looking for donations to repay the money they owe to the school. But Wink is optimistic that the team's success will lead to good fortunes.

"I hope that in the coming years the team can continue to find the kind of success we had this season and that our school can increase support for our program making it easier for the team to make this trip every year," Wink said.



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